Following the steam locomotive (hereafter SL) Class E10, I'm going to show you the other impressive exhibit in the Ome Railway Park today.
The Class 8620 was one of Japan's masterpiece SLs. It was developed by the Ministry of Railways in the early 1910's. In those days, the Japanese government made plans to strengthen its railway industries by domestically manufacturing its standard SLs, all of which were previously manufactured abroad. Although the large SLs for limited express trains on the trunk lines continued to be imported from U.K., U.S. and Prussia, the middle-sized SLs for express trains on the semi-trunk lines started being manufactured in Japan. The Class 8620 is the example of the latter.
Let's take a look at the specifications. The Class 8620 is a 2-6-0 (Whyte notation) type SL that has a tender attached. It's 16.765 meters long, and weighs 83.33 tons. The driving wheel diameter is 1,600 millimeters. It produces an output of 558kW and a maximum speed of 95 kilometers per hour. A total of 672 units were built by Kisha Seizo, Kawasaki Zosenjo and the others. The most important feature was its high curve passage performance by connecting the leading and the first driving wheels.
The exhibit in the Ome Railway Park is the top number unit, namely unit 8620. It was built by Kisha Seizo in 1914. After operating for 44 years on the semi-trunk lines on Kyushu and Shikoku islands, it was retired from the track in 1958.
